LINKS TO MONDO POLITICO: ....Home ....Discussion ....Election Sites ....Library ....News ....Parties

Election 2004
Voter Guide

NAVIGATION


Home

News

Polls

Election 2000 Results

Discussion

 



Political Parties

Jump to Party Descriptions:

Christian
Top of page Top of page Top of page Next Party Previous Party
CHRISTIAN HERITAGE PARTY OF CANADA ("CHP")
 


Leader: Ron Gray

Web Site: www.chp.ca

Platform: Platform

Candidates: None listed on web site as of May 1, 2004.

The Party: The Christian Heritage Party ("CHP") takes the position that God - the god mentioned in the New Testament of the Christian bible - is supreme in Canada's system of government. On the CHP web site, the party says it believes:

    • "There is one Creator God, eternally existent in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

    • The Holy Bible to be the inspired, inerrant written Word of God and the final authority above all man's laws and government.

    • Civil government to be under the authority of God.

    • The purpose of civil government is to ensure freedom and justice for a nation's citizens by upholding law and order in accordance with Biblical principles.

    • Decision-making processes by civil government must not in any way contravene these Biblical ethics." (emphasis added)

The CHP does not suggest that Canada's government be comprised of clerics, and it does not suggest a departure from the practice of electing MPs to the House of Commons. However, the party's beliefs, above, make it the CHP's most defining feature clear: it is theocratic, rather than democratic, in nature. In other words, it believes that the government's "authority to govern is ultimately derived from God" (hence theocracy, meaning "god power"), rather than being derived from mankind (which is the essence of democracy, meaning "people power"). As a result, the CHP also believes that, above all of the laws of Canada - above the common law, the statutes, and the constitution - the Christian Bible alone sits as the supreme law.

Party Policies: The CHP's core beliefs, naturally, find their way into the following statements, set out in the CHP's Policies (emphasis added, below):

    • "We believe that obedience to God and His commandments should be the foundation of government." (1.0[1])

    • "...economic prosperity is a blessing of the Lord..." (3.1)

    • "...We believe that the human body is the property of God..." (6.3[1])

    • "Abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being, and therefore is a crime against God" (6.3[2])

    • "Justice consists of judicial procedures based on the principles of God's revealed Word..." (6.1[1])

    • "We affirm that contempt of the Bible, and any form of blasphemy against God, are an offense which Parliament has an obligation to prohibit and declare as morally wrong." (6.2[4])

    • "We affirm that the value and dignity of the individual is derived from the fact that 'man was created in the image of God" (6.3[3])

    • "We affirm that heterosexual, monogamous marriage is God-ordained as the foundation of the family, and that any other form of union whatsoever is Biblically prohibited" (note CHP "belief", above, that, in Canada, the Bible is the supreme law, superior even to statutes and the constitution). (6.4[2])

    • "The government has been entrusted by God with the use of ‘the sword’ for the protection of the citizens and the punishment of evil" (6.7.8)

    • "...authority to govern is ultimately derived from God..."(7.0[1])

    • "Government exists to serve God..." (7.0[1])

    • "Though the mandate of church and state are different, we deny that God and His Word should be separate from either institution" (7.0[2])

    • "...wisdom and justice ultimately have as their source a reverential fear of God (1) and respect for His Word." (7.4[1])

We can infer, from these deep faith-based, theocratic commitments, that the CHP would be in favour of criminal punishment for women who have abortions, and would never permit the recognition of gay marriages. It is not clear how a CHP government, acting as the hand of God on earth, would treat those who would wear a tee-shirt that was contemptuous of the Christian Bible or blasphemous against the Christian God (see section 6.2[4] of the CHP policies). However, the CHP's policy in favour of government prohibition of such expressions, if acted upon, would arguably requires a CHP led Parliament to invoke the Charter of Rights and Freedoms' notwithstanding clause (section 33) to override Canadians' freedom of expression. The CHP's commitment to government being the enforcer of God's laws also invites inquiry into whether the CHP would find a "place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation"1 so as to punish sexual acts that it might find to be contrary to what it considers the supreme law set out in the Bible.

We would be remiss in not commenting upon the apparent soft-peddaling of the CHP's deeply religious Policies in the party's election Platform: the platform contains no references to the Bible, and only one reference to God (and, even then, only to quote the "supremacy of God" preamble in Canada's constitution). However, CHP is hardly alone in providing the electorate with a relatively secularized or toned-down election Platform in the face of a somewhat more dramatically worded statement of party Policies. For example, the Green Party of Ontario published a rather mainstream-sounding Platform in the provincial election of 2003: in some cases - notably education - the Platform boasted of offering choice in education without mentioning the party's Policy of having a single, government-operated, system of education. A positive for the CHP: whereas the Green Party of Ontario took its statement of Policies off of its web site during the Ontario election (which, intentionally or unintentionally, made it difficult to discover that the election Platform was not telling the whole story about the party's agenda), the CHP (at least as of May 1, 2004) posts its Policies for all to see, and to compare with the CHP election Platform.

1. Historical Note: This phrase was coined by Martin O'Malley while a writer for the Globe and Mail newspaper. The line was later made famous on December 21, 1967, when it was used by then Minister of Justice Pierre Elliott Trudeau upon his introduction of an omnibus bill that, among other things, decriminalized "homosexual acts" performed in private.

 

Page Last updated: Thursday, May 27, 2004  



LINKS TO
POLITICAL
PARTY WEB SITES



BQ

BQ

CAP

Christian

Communist

Marxist

Freedom Party

Freedom Party

Freedom Party

Freedom Party

Green

Liberal

Liberal

Libertarian

Marijuana

NDP

NDP

Socialist

PPP

Socialist